Sun 6/5 After Worship Services, Mpls & West. Visit the tables representing the various Mount Olivet ministry programs to learn about volunteer opportunities and receive a thank-you gift for your support. Special music: MONROE CROSSING at Mpls and BARBARY COAST DIXIELAND show BAND at West. Yes, there will be mini-donuts!

Service at Mount Olivet

Mount Olivet Serves ... Community and Abroad

You and your family are invited and encouraged to learn about opportunities to serve in our communities and around the world. Representatives from Mount Olivet’s partner ministries will answer questions and share information about their ministries and how you can get involved.

Devotion with Pastor MacLean

“When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.” – Acts 2:1-4

A crowd gathered and people were bewildered, amazed, and astonished at what they heard. This, according to early Christian tradition, was an experience of the power of the Holy Spirit coming upon the followers of Jesus and creating a community, the church. The experience is described in terms of rushing wind, tongues of fire, and the miracle of speaking in known but foreign tongues. Whatever happened in that room that day, it was an experience filled with power and mystery.

I don’t know about you, but I’m much more comfortable with the Holy Spirit described in John’s Gospel: the gentle Spirit of peace, the Comforter and Helper who quietly comes alongside us when we’re in need of God’s help.

The Spirit of God comforts us. But the Spirit of God also challenges us and empowers us to be God’s people in our communities and in the world. Pentecost is about the unpredictable presence of God, who challenges us to risk opening our lives and our hearts and our futures. Will you be open to this side of God’s presence – the power of God that comes to transform us and send us out into our daily lives to bear bold witness to God’s love for this world? I invite you to explore various ways to do this by serving in our community and our world. On Pentecost Sunday, May 15, come and learn more about our ministry partners at Mount Olivet Serves … Community and Abroad. – PASTOR MACLEAN

Thinking with Pastor Youngdahl- Sharing Our Gifts to Bless Others

The Day of Pentecost was an event like no other in that the disciples were given the gift of the Holy Spirit. In Acts 1:8, before Jesus ascends into Heaven, he informs the disciples of this: “You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth.” The Holy Spirit is the active agent that not only grants the disciples the ability to believe in the resurrection, but it is what enables and pushes them out into the world to proclaim this Good News and to serve others in love.

As Christians, we too have this same Holy Spirit, a Spirit which produces fruits such as “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control” (Galatians 5:22-23). There are many bi-products of the gifts that we are given, and we have the privilege and honor of outwardly sharing these. So how might we use these gifts to bless others?

Mount Olivet is a servant congregation filled with disciples that are eager to utilize these fruits of the Spirit. On May 15, the Day of Pentecost, our Community Concern and International Ministries Teams will be hosting an event at both campuses, Mount Olivet Serves ... Community and Abroad. Representatives from our partner ministries will be on hand to provide information and answer questions about the many ways that Mount Olivet cares for others in our communities and in the world. Come and see how the Holy Spirit is actively influencing the lives of Mount Olivet members. Hopefully you will be moved by this same Spirit to be generous with your time by committing to serving others out of the love of our Risen Savior. – PASTOR YOUNGDAHL